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Erie County Holding Center
County jailMaximumUnder capacity (62%)LowHigh
Verified
Fresh · 2mo ago
Sources last reviewed on
Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.
For families
How to send mail, money, and visit Erie County Holding Center
Step-by-step guidance using the United States system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.
Erie County Holding Center is a county jail located in Erie County, New York. Rated capacity: 638. Reported population: 397. Security level: Maximum. Data sourced from the HIFLD Prison Boundaries open dataset.
Background
The Erie County Holding Center in Buffalo, New York is a pre-trial, maximum security detention facility that serves Erie County. Capable of housing 680 inmates, it is the second largest detention facility in New York State outside of New York City. Inmate "Over-flow" is housed at the Holding Center Annex at the Erie County Correctional Facility in Alden, New York. The Jail Management Division of the Erie County Sheriff's Office conducts regularly scheduled tours of the facility for high school and college student groups, police academy classes and groups of "At risk" teens. The ECHC is staffed by approximately 500 Deputies whom are sworn police officers.
Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.
Capacity
638
Current population
397
Occupancy
62%
Year opened
—
Operational
Figures from official sources · verified 2 Jun 2026 · methodology
Facility profile
Population held
Mixed/unknown
Opened
—
Region
New York
Security level
Maximum
Death-row facility
No
Conditions
No conditions summary available yet.
Visiting
No visiting information available.
Mailing
No mailing information available.
Practical info
Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.
Known issues
The U.S. Department of Justice investigated Erie County Holding Center and Erie County Correctional Facility, New York under CRIPA and issued a findings letter in July 2009. The matter was subsequently closed as settled.
Notable inmates
- Nurul Amin Shah Alam1970–2026 · refugee
Source: Wikidata + Wikipedia.
Documented human-rights cases
- Erie County Holding Center and Erie County Correctional Facility (New York)2009-01-01 · Eighth Amendment / Fourteenth Amendment (US Constitution) â CRIPA · settled
Erie County Holding Center and
Contact & address
Conditions Risk Score
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
5/100
Low concern5/100
- Overcrowding
- 0/30
- Oversight reports
- 0/30
- Structural flags
- 5/15
- Death signals
- 0/15
- Conditions text
- 0/10
What the score is responding to:
- · Substantial documented known-issues record
This facility scores 5. The national average across 7,437 scored United States facilities is 2 — 3 points above national average.
Related facilities
Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.
- Beaufort County Detention CenterWashingtonMaximumCounty jail222% occupancy
- Abbeville County Detention CenterAbbevilleMaximumCounty jail200% occupancy
- Southwest Virginia Regional Jail - TazewellTazewellMaximumCounty jail330% occupancy
- Franklin County Detention FacilitySt. AlbansMaximumCounty jail660% occupancy
- Spartanburg County Main JailSpartanburgMaximumCounty jail152% occupancy
- Anderson County Detention CenterAndersonMaximumCounty jail183% occupancy
Compared to other facilities in United States
7436 peersOccupancythis: 62% · peers avg: 93% (33%)
Capacity (beds)this: 638 · peers avg: 547 (+17%)
Data completeness
74%How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.
Sources
- HIFLD Prison Boundaries
- HIFLD dataset query
- Wikipedia — Wikimedia Foundation
- HIFLD Prison Boundaries — US Department of Homeland Security â HIFLD Open Data
- OpenStreetMap — OpenStreetMap Contributors
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation
- Wikidata (Q5388291)
- Wikipedia
- See /data-sources for our overall methodology.
Cite this page
Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.
APA
World Prisons. (2026). Erie County Holding Center. Retrieved July 21, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/erie-county-holding-center
Chicago
"Erie County Holding Center." World Prisons. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/erie-county-holding-center.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-erie-county-holding-center,
author = {{World Prisons}},
title = {Erie County Holding Center},
year = {2026},
url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/erie-county-holding-center},
urldate = {2026-07-21}
}